MERRA-2 M2SMNXPCT: Monthly Percentile Statistics for Temperature and Precipitation

MERRA-2 M2SMNXPCT is a 2-dimensional monthly data collection for percentile statistics derived from NASA's Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2. Version 2 of this percentile data collection is computed based on the 1991-2020 climatology, covering the time period from January 1980 to present. The dataset is produced by the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) version 5.12.4.

Use Cases

• Identify extreme temperature events based on percentile statistics for maximum, mean, and minimum 2-m air temperature.
• Characterize extreme precipitation events based on percentile statistics for total precipitation.
• Analyze long-term climate variability using percentile data computed from a 30-year climatology (1991-2020).
• Compare atmospheric conditions against a modern climatological baseline for research and applications.

Strengths

• Derived from NASA's latest global atmospheric reanalysis (MERRA-2) for the satellite era.
• Provides percentile statistics based on a 30-year climatology (1991-2020), offering a modern baseline.
• Covers a long time period from January 1980 to present, enabling analysis of decades of data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data has a latency of ~3 weeks after the end of the previous month, not real-time.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from monthly Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2) datasets.

Time Range

January 1980 to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:52:38.744802; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global